24/04/2022
April 24th was jayanti. Thought of sharing this old sketch drawn eight years ago and have been used used all over the web. Many times i see this artwork used by someone and some people have this as their profile pic. This was drawn when I had no idea of internet art theft and plagiarism. Interestingly this artwork was drawn to represent Chandragupta Maurya but has been used extensively over the web to represent all great kings of India including Lalitaditya Muktapida and others as well. Today sharing it again to reiterate that this is originally my work. Coming back to Chandragupta Maurya, I am quite confident that most of you know the detailed story. Maurya was a powerful king who rose from being no one to challenge and defeat the powerful Nanda empire that had frightened the so-called mighty Alexander. Maurya was guided by his master Chanakya who is also often mentioned same as Vishnugupt (the author of Panchatantra) but most probably they were two different personalities. Chandragupta was the most successful king of our country whose rule extended to most part of the present India. He even defeated the satraps installed by the Greeks. His success was in many ways similar to that of Yudhishthir in Mahabharat. Maurya was guided by a brahmin Chanakya but later adopted Jainism. It was a time where most probably the Vedic yagya practice had got reduced to mere pump and show and evil practices had crept into misguided application of the varna system. IMO these reasons contributed in growth of Mahavir Swami and Buddha's teachings of non-violence. It shows that the period did witness a lot of bloodshed and its sort of indicator of how Maurya extended his empire. Maurya is one of the mighty pillar of our ancient cultural heritage who fought and defeated the foreign invaders and strengthened our country.